|
It’s a time for us to bond with our sisters and brothers, while looking back on the year that’s passed.
We all saw our share of challenges in 2010. Most notably, Canada saw the election of a Conservative Majority, making Stephen Harper more dangerous. It’s now more important than ever to band together to fight for our public services, in the face of a government that wants to sell them to the highest bidder.
We have a massive opportunity to change things for the better in the upcoming provincial elections. On October 6th, we need to elect a government that will fight for public jobs and public services. The Conservative Party’s Tim Hudak is bent on slashing public services, worse than Mike Harris did in the 90s. More recently, we’ve seen no improvement from Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government. It’s time for the kind of change that we all need. On October 6th, vote for a better Ontario.
The past year has been a challenge, but has also been full of victory and solidarity. In the past month alone, we saw many of our dedicated members and hundreds of community alias stay up late at Toronto’s City Hall to make deputations in a fight to save our public services.
In Kingston, our CUPE members at Queen’s University worked hard to reach an agreement, averting a lock-out or strike that would have impacted campus operations, as we saw at the University of Windsor. Elsewhere, we fought for fair wages, better hours, and a better pension for our CUPE Air Transat flight attendants. We also welcomed a number of new locals to CUPE Ontario, with Local 2892 – Dundas County Community Living joining our family.
It has been truly inspiring to see our members come together as a group—whether it’s marching in the summer’s Pride parades, standing in solidarity with the brave steelworkers in Hamilton or resisting the aggressive attacks on public services from right wing mayors and councils. 2011 has brought CUPE and members so much to be proud of, and so much to celebrate. Be sure to use September 5th this year to celebrate with the union sisters and brothers in your community!
|
